For those who want to do Egypt differently.
If you are considering investing €20,000 to €100,000+ in a journey through Egypt, I would suggest we start with a conversation.
At this level, planning shouldn’t begin with a package or a fixed itinerary. It should begin with what you want from your time in Egypt, what interests you and what you would like to experience that you might not find through conventional travel planners. I am anything but conventional. Read my story.
Any travel agent can take a list from you and deliver it – me too! But if you want more, you need to invest more than money in the trip. I need you to initially invest some time in email or chat conversations so I can get a feel for what will float your boat – the kind of stuff you don’t even know about, so you can’t ask for it.
Don’t jump to conclusions here. High-end experiences are not ALL about the price tag, exclusive access or private jets. Sometimes it’s just the little things that can make a HUGE difference to a person’s journey.
Everyone is different. I don’t particularly care who you are on paper; I care about finding what will touch the person behind the name. That’s why I work at this level with a Planning Pass. It’s your promise to me that you’re ready to invest your time as well as your cash.
Your Planning Pass – €500
The fee is a flat €500, payable before planning begins. It is not deducted from the cost of your eventual trip, and it is non-refundable if you choose to withdraw. If I decide we’re not a fit, I will refund it in full.
It covers my personal involvement in developing your proposed journey from start to finish. You may hand the logistics over to an assistant once we get to that stage, but initially I need your time and input.
I want to hear from you, not your assistant.
I regularly receive first-contact enquiries from assistants and planners acting on behalf of wealthy and well-known clients. Many read like AI-generated briefs: a tick list of destinations and requirements, carefully worded requests and an expectation that I will return a quotation broken down in exactly the same way as every other supplier.
I do have some sympathy for the assistant tasked with organising an important trip to Egypt. Really, I do. It’s a bit like asking a non-swimmer to jump off a cliff into the Atlantic and hoping they’ll work out what to do when they hit the water! How are you supposed to know what to ask for when your knowledge of Egypt is limited to what you’ve managed to find on Google? You don’t know what you don’t know.
If you’re the person tasked with finding something extraordinary for your employer, you may well be the one who brings us together. I’d love you to make the introduction, but I need to hear from the traveler personally before we go any further.
I want to know what excites them about Egypt, what they’re curious about and what they’ve always wanted to do. More importantly, I want to discover what might appeal to them that neither they nor their assistant has thought of yet. That’s where the interesting part of my job begins.
I don’t work with just anyone, and I don’t work with everyone who asks.
This has to work both ways. I’m putting my knowledge, experience, contacts and a considerable amount of personal time into creating something that is right for you – not simply delivering a list of things you’ve requested.
I need to know that we’re on the same wavelength, that you’re genuinely interested in exploring the possibilities and that you understand this is a collaborative process. If I feel it isn’t going to work, I’ll tell you straight out shortly after we begin and refund your €500. There’s little point either of us investing time if we’re not going to get the best out of it. If you withdraw from the process, at any stage the fee is non-refundable.
You deal directly with me throughout the planning process. You may pass the logistics off to an assistant when we get to that point, but I don’t pass your trip off to anyone else.
If this sounds like the sort of planning you’re looking for, I’d be very happy to hear from you. All it takes is an email from you to me, requesting the payment link: maraegypt@gmail.com
For an overview of all my tours in Egypt